Review of Roxanne (1987) by Natalie G — 16 Nov 2011

I had this rated much higher based on what I thought I remembered from when I saw this years ago. After reading Rostand's play and rewatching the Jose Ferrer version of Cyrano de Bergerac from 1950, I had to lower my rating to three stars.

I thought it had been a fairly clever modern day adaptation of the story, but the order of some of the scenes has been switched around in ways that don't make sense. Daryl Hannah's Roxanne is now kind of a rocket scientist because ravishing beauty is not enough.

The lunkhead, Chris, runs away with another woman. Shelley Duvall does not make a good replacement for Cyrano's, ne C.D.'s confidant. The firefighters, instead of gascons, are a bunch of slapstick comedians, but the gags are not often that great.

The dart board scene when C.D. comes up with 20 creative insults about his large nose is a good adaptation of the original scene. The 80's style, romantic complications and laughs in this movie generally don't work that well for me.